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Sergeant Shoots Herself at Fort Lee in Virginia, Flown to Hospital

An Army sergeant barricaded herself in an office and shot herself Monday at Fort Lee in Virginia, authorities said. The soldier, a sergeant first class with 14 years in the Army, was flown to a hospital, where her condition was unknown.

The base, south of Richmond, was briefly locked down after a report of a shooter on the post. Maj. Gen. Stephen Lyons, head of the Army’s Combined Arms Support Command, a training operation, said that the sergeant turned the gun on herself after negotiations with soldiers. He said that the gun was not a service weapon.

The Army did not release the sergeant’s name. Lyons said that she had been deployed to Iraq in 2007 for a personnel job. He said it was not clear what led the sergeant to shoot herself. “We are sad for our soldier in arms that she faced those kinds of challenges and she thought she had to resort to those kinds of actions,” he told reporters. “At the same time we’re grateful because the situation could have been worse.”